For a person who is constrained to prepare meals or otherwise use a sink while seated in a wheelchair, the design of conventional sinks complicates the task at hand. It detracts from the simple pleasure which can be experienced, for instance, in making an apple pie from scratch, when the sink and its cabinet prevent the user from getting close enough to comfortably wash and peel the apples. Some may not be able to reach faucet of a conventional sink. With most conventional sinks, the choice is between pulling the wheelchair up to the sink sideways and trying to do most of the work with the hand that is closest to the sink, or finding some other way, such as not working at the sink.
The mentioned shortcoming of conventional sink designs impinges on others who are not necessarily wheelchair users. There are others who, whether for reasons relating to health, or simply to comfort or preference, would rather if they could, be seated while working at the sink, especially for long tasks.
The fundamental problems for a seated user is that the user's knees bang into the conventional sink or the cabinet front under the sink several inches before the user is close enough to the sink basin to comfortably undertake the work that needs to be done.
Others have sought to provide specialized sink constructions for seated users, but generally the approach has been to make the sink vertically movable, which complicates the plumbing and mounting. Another proposed solution has been to make the sink somewhat crescent-shaped, but that eliminates the central front part of the sink, the very portion which should be most accessible.